World Checklist of Myrtaceae

Description

Myrtaceae is the ninth largest flowering plant family; it is economically important in the production of timber, gums, essential oils, fruits and spices and contains many commonly cultivated ornamentals. This family is particularly rich in large genera, often found in some of the world's most threatened ecosystems where their fruits comprise an important part of the diet of primates and birds. The similarity of Myrtaceae species is high and its taxonomic and nomenclatural history is complex, resulting in notorious difficulties in basic identification, inventory compilation and floristic treatment. World Checklist of Myrtaceae is a much needed work that lists all validly published names in the family, providing the source of their publication and indicating which names are currently accepted and which are synonyms. This makes it the standard nomenclatural reference for further research into thisimportant family.

Peter Ashton is professor emeritus in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he served as director of the Arnold Arboretum. He is also an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Ashton has published more than 260 research papers and books and has field experience in the forests of all but three nations in the Asian tropics. He is a Japan Prize laureate and recipient of many other awards, including the Linnean Medal, the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, and the UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation.